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Starting With Quail For A Few Eggs

Quail are very easy to look after and they start laying eggs from about 6 weeks old.

Last year I hatched some japanese quail and have 8 females and 5 males in an aviary type hut. I generally get 6-8 eggs a day from this group of quail.

I put shavings or straw on the floor which is a concrete base and the concrete helps to prevent rats from entering the hut and also makes it easy to clean out the hut.

The quail enjoy dust bathing in the shavings and they like to make a nest using the straw as they are ground nesting birds.

They eat layers pellets and drink water but they also like cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce and meal worms.

I have a smallish hen drinker and feeder which the quail eat and drink out of.

My hut is a walk in hut and the quail are not frightened of me. The only time my quail get abit spooked is if I wear red. The quail are ground nesting birds and don’t go up into an enclosed hut like hens do, but they do like to shelter in a box with straw in it when it is cold and windy.

You can put quail in a run on the lawn but you have to be careful that their toes don’t get toeballs which is when they get soil and droppings attached to their feet and it forms a ball.

I kept my quail on grass in a guinea pig run when they were younger and their feet soon got toe balls whcih I removed. They are much better when on shavings or straw. So if you want to give them access to grass, I would suggest that they go in a run during the day and then return to their hut/aviary on a night.

For more information about quail why not browse through the quail category where you will find more information about quail http://farmingfriends.com/category/quail/ or why not join the farmingfriends forum where there is a section on quail where you can chat about your quail and ask advice of other quail enthusiasts http://farmingfriends.com/forums/forum.php?id=3.